Dell Readies Lineup of New Tablets and Converged Devices for Windows 8 Launch.

Sales of Dell dropped last quarter by 8% year-over-year as desktop and mobility revenue contracted. The company remains optimistic as it expects increase of demand with Windows 8 launch and hopes it will be able to respond with competitive products. In particular, Dell readies new notebooks, tablets and converged devices with new Windows operating system. Still, the company is cautious about immediate success of Windows 8.

"We are positioned to be a leader in addressing the emerging corporate BYOD trend with our current XPS 13, 14 and 15 notebooks, and their upcoming tablets and converged devices. In addition, you will see new Windows 8 ultrabooks, all-in-ones, tablets and converged devices in the fourth quarter and headed into next year," said Brian Gladden, chief financial officer of Dell, during a conference call with financial analysts.

Dell did not reveal whether its tablets will use ARM-based system-on-chips along with Windows RT or Intel Corp.'s x86 microprocessors with Windows 8 operating system. What is more or less clear is that Dell is concentrating primarily on consumer-oriented Windows 8 products and that is for a reason: enterprises will not start transitions to Windows 8 for several quarters.

"We have seen data that would suggest only about 50% of that Windows 7 transition is complete [in the corporate segment], and that is got to continue and will continue as we sort of play out over the next several quarters here, before anybody really thinks about Windows 8 on the commercial side," said Mr. Gladden.

As a result, it barely makes sense to rush Windows 8 Pro-based tablets for corporate segments just now: sales will be moderate everywhere except the small-business segment. At the same time, considering the fact that the majority of Fortune 500 companies are test driving Apple iPad media tablets, companies like Dell should not delay their tablets

"Those areas in the corporate, or commercial customer base that are looking at tablets, clearly there is a wait and see sort of approach and how you think about that playing out in the commercial enterprise. As Windows 8, as an alternative, with the tablet product that can work in the enterprise well, with security, is something that we hear a lot of our customers talking about, and really waiting for. So, we would expect that could be a catalyst and we will be part of that. And our products are really focused on that part of the market," said chief financial officer of Dell.

Discussion

Of course it will take several quarters--it takes at least that long to put together a roll-out program. But you can bet that evaluations will begin for many immediately. Substandard or nonexistent products at launch definitely do not help.